Where the Dark Stands Still

The people of Stodoła think that Liska Radost is a witch because she possesses magic and can see spirits. While the rest of her village celebrates Kupała Night, the teenager searches for the fern flower. Legends say that the rare bloom grants wishes and grows in the Driada, a forest where demons and ghosts dwell. She hopes to ask the fern flower to break her curse. She plunges into the forest armed only with a lantern and a red necklace meant to ward off demons. The spirit-wood is ruled by the demon Leszy, who “protects the travelers in the wood and the villages around it” (7). Before entering the forest, Liska makes an offering of bread and sausage to the Leszy, but she forfeits his protection when she accidentally strays from the path. She loses her necklace and trips over a root, dousing her lantern.

A majestic white stag with green eyes approaches Liska. She curtsies and asks, “I don’t suppose you know the way to the fern flower?” (9). The stag leads her to a river, and a shape-shifting demon called a rusałka drags her underwater. Liska’s magic bursts out of her in the shape of blue